Here's an absolutely lovely video about a beekeeper-artist-visionary in Hong Kong named Michael Leung. I love what he says about moving slowly, calmly, in a Zenlike way when working with the bees, and I love his steadfast attitude toward the work he's doing to promote all sorts of important connections that, for many, have been lost but now are found.
Nokia - HK Honey from The Silentlights on Vimeo.
The New York Times has just published a quite wonderful, and mournful, meditation on the lost flora of New York City by the Executive Director of N.Y.C. Wildflower Week.
I highly recommend taking a look, whether or not you live in NYC, as a motivating meditation on the importance of finding ways, large and small, to help replenish and restore this battered world.
How about a gorgeous slide show of New York City bees to get your wintry mind rolling in a summerly direction?
Over the weekend, the New York Times ran a wonderfully supportive Op Ed piece about the legalization of beekeeping in New York City. Take a look.
Ahhh...I feel lighter today as if...a ban...has been lifted...from my shoulders....It's great to wake up in the city where keeping bees is no longer a crime.
One of my hive-mates at the NYC Beekeepers Association was kind enough to round up some of the extensive press coverage on the overturning of the beekeeping ban in NYC yesterday.
Before presenting the media coverage, though, I'd like take a moment for the "First Things First" department. Let's recognize and honor the hard work of the people at Just Food, which led this charge so ably and so well. Here's a summary of their efforts. We all owe them a debt of thanks.
Here are some of the many media stories about the "banning of the ban," for the newshounds among you.
NBC News, "Big Apple Lifts Beekeeper Ban"
The Globe and Mail, "The Big Apple, Where Honey Talks"
The New York Times, "NYC Abuzz: Sweet Deal Makes Bees Legal"
On Earth, "Sweet News: New York City Dumps Beekeeping Ban"
LA Times, "Sweet News for Colonies: NYC Legalized Honeybees in a Boon for Keepers of Rooftop Hives"
HuffPo, "New York City Officials Decide to Allow Beekeeping"
Have you seen other notable coverage on the lifting of the ban? Leave a comment and let me know!
It's official. As of this very sunny morn, the ban on beekeeping here in New York City has been lifted!
All hail the many individuals and organizations who worked so hard to make this happen.
with the hope that, in the next few days, some good news will be coming down the pike for New York City beekeepers and wanna-beekeepers. See this article in today's New York Times.
If you're a New Yorker with an interest in beekeeping, now is a great time to become a part of the New York City Beekeepers Association. Join NYCBA's Facebook page to keep up with the latest. And sign up for our official mailing list by visiting the NYCBA website.
As we eagerly await word on whether beekeeping will be legalized here in NYC, the timing seems good to share a couple of items on urban beekeeping—this time from Tokyo.
First, a charmingly illustrated blog post on the Tokyo Green Space blog on the Ginza Honey Bee Project. (See also this Japan Times article about beekeeping in Ginza.)
And don't miss this intriguing NPR piece on Tokyo's "war" on crows, and how beekeepers are getting involved.
Peruse the topic further via the World Wide G-Spot, here.
Folks, there are only a few days left to do your part to get beekeeping legalized in NYC! On or before 5 p.m. on Wed. Feb. 3rd, please take a moment to send your message in support of modifying the NYC health code to allow beekeeping by emailing your message to: RESOLUTIONCOMMENTS (at) health.nyc.gov
You can learn more here. And, to spark your creative juices (if, indeed, juices can be sparked), here's the letter I emailed to the NYC Health Department just moments ago:
It is my pleasure to submit these comments in strong support of legalizing beekeeping in New York City. As a lifelong resident of this city, I know how important it is to improve the ecological balance here and to support a level of biodiversity that benefits human, plant, and animal alike.
As a weekend beekeeper and gardener in upstate New York, I have come to love the company of honeybees. Their extraordinary role as key pollinators has increased my garden’s yield exponentially. The pleasure of observing them at work is unparalleled. The hum of their labor is a joy to the ear. I seek these aesthetic pleasures in the city too, and rejoice when, come springtime, I am lucky enough to see a honeybee working the blossoms of a crocus in a neighbor’s garden. I only wish such sights and sounds were not so rare.
My neighbors in Brooklyn—many of them old-timers who have been here for many decades—lament the disappearance of honeybees in their gardens—a presence they enjoyed and benefited from. They seem fascinated when they find out I am a beekeeper—they want to know more about the bees; they want to tell their own bee-related stories; they are concerned about the threats bees face.
I mention all this because I think it’s become almost second nature to underestimate the toll on urban residents when, bit by bit, traces of the natural world are eradicated, threatened, or diminished. I think we lose our sense of history and place, and humanizing opportunities to revel and participate in the fascinating world of nature—which is, of course, our world (even in the city).
By legalizing beekeeping, we can increase public education about the importance of bees and the natural world so often overlooked in our busy urban lives. We can more openly educate urban beekeepers on safe, neighbor-friendly beekeeping practices. Our local gardens will certainly benefit. Our connection with self-sufficiency and awareness of where our food comes from will increase. The rich aesthetic pleasures associated with the sights and sounds of bees and their hives will become more available to those who desire them. And we’ll all be able to increase our access to local, New York City honey produced by the sophisticated, urbane bees who call New York City home.
Thank you for considering these perspectives.
Sincerely,
Gerry Gomez Pearlberg
Those, gentle reader, are my two cents—now go ahead and add your two cents to the discussion if you're a New Yorker with an interest in this issue. We really need to make this happen! You can learn more about this effort and the hearing next week by visiting our friends over at Just Food, who are working so hard on this venture.
If you live in NYC and can count, you may wish to help out with a citizen science project to count bees in the five boroughs.
The Times did a nice article about this project today.
Full details on the NYC bee-counting project can be found on the Bee Watchers page of the Great Pollinator Project.
Check out these pics of yesterday's daring honeybee rescue adventure in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
Andrew Cote of the New York City Beekeepers Association led the rescue brigade; here's an excerpted version of Andrew's report on the escapade:
Some of you know that we at the New York City Beekeepers Association (www.nyc-bees.org) will do just about anything for honeybees. We received word a couple of days ago that a tree in Brooklyn had fallen, was resting across wires, but the tree men could not remove it since there was a colony of honeybees living within. There was talk of poisoning the hive. So we at the NYCBA sprung into action.
Bob, whose house it is, took lots of pics and put this all up - amazing! The bees are not featured so much since the event went pretty flawlessly. We got there early enough to screen the bees in before their morning flight, and though a little time consuming and nerve wracking to be under the heavy branch near the wires, all worked out well. Not a single bees was harmed, and only two were spotted on the wrong side of the screen.
Those concerned will be happy to know that the log that is the honeybees' home is now upright in the original position, and situated in my front yard in Connecticut. The bees seem none the worse for wear though they did not enjoy being bounced around in the back of the van for a couple of hours.
Wherever danger threatens honeybees, wherever there is pollinating to be done, whenever we are needed, we will be there.
Lots of fun stuff re. urban beekeeping these days. It's clear we're in the midst of a major upsurge in the department of cityfolk-doing-rural-things.
Visit the City Bees blog, where bee-blogger Toni takes us on a tour of the White House bee hives!
Meet the keeper of the Clinton Community Garden beehive in Hell's Kitchen, New York.
Listen to a recent WNYC profile on the NYC Beekeepers Association.
Check out this recent conversation about the value of beekeeping in NYC and the status of the efforts to make it legal with the Executive Director of Just Food and a leading honeybee researcher. (Scroll down until you see "The Buzz Around Town.")
The New York Times has been running a nice series this week wherein the Executive Director of Just Food has been answering readers' questions about all things food-, ag-, and sustainability-related.
I submitted two questions and today, one of my questions (about bees, of course) was answered. Here's the item. Also discussed: community-supported agriculture, food justice, and ferreting out locally grown legumes.
Here is the first set of questions and replies, in which urban chickens, community gardens, and locavore-itude in an urban context are discussed.
Two exciting developments had us leaping out of bed and rushing to blog this morning.
The first is this fabulous item on the City Bees blog about the new beehives at the White House. The photos here are borrowed from the blog; you'll definitely want to rush right over to the City Bees page to see more cool pictures ASAP.
The second installment in this morning's Department of Thrills is this friendly article entitled NYC Buzzing With Bees, about the NYC Beekeepers Association, our friends Andrew and Kelly, and the burgeoning interest in urban beekeeping here in our fair city. Check it out.
And while you're at it, do sign up to join the mailing list of the NYC Beekeepers Association to be apprised of the group's upcoming activities.
Spring is here on so many levels. And a welcomed groundswell of attention is being paid to sustainable farming, community-supported agriculture, urban food-growing, and all that good stuff.
We're pleased to see that the Executive Director of Just Food—a NYC-based organization that, among its many other good works, is seeking to get beekeeping legalized in our fair city—is being featured in one of the New York Times' Q&A columns.
So go ahead, Ask About Local Food in New York!
